History Recap / ArcherS5E1WhiteElephant

On Malory's birthday, an explosion rocks ISIS headquarters, and Brett Bunsen is {{killed|OffForReal}} in an attack led by some heavily-armoured intruders, who turn out to be the FBI. Agent Holly, the leader of the division, arrests the employees for, among various other charges, treason, as ISIS had been conducting espionage without the permission of the US government. The ISIS crew are taken into custody, where Malory urges them not to give up ISIS' secrets, and that she will get them free of all charges. They do anyway, in order to receive immunity, which none of them are granted in the end.

* ILied: Mallory doesn't show much remorse when it was revealed she was running ISIS without government permission.

'''Mallory:''' And like fifty times, I lied. Sue me.

* NotHelpingYourCase: Mallory tells the staff to trust her in avoiding the charges of treason. Instead, everyone (save for her, Lana, and Archer), attempt to sell each other out in hopes of immunity in a possible trial (among other things). The problem is no one in the FBI ever discussed their offer before they started running their mouths. So they pretty much screwed themselves in an unwitting confession of everything ISIS has ever done up to this point.
* PoorCommunicationKills: As agent Holly points out the entire shootout could have been avoided if his men had announced they were FBI before entering ISIS (or if the initials were on the front of the uniforms).

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Want to operate your own private espionage agency without permission or oversight from the government? Well then don't be surprised when you're arrested by the FBI for treason.
** The FBI agents perform a no-knock raid on the headquarters of said espionage agency? Well then don't be surprised when the secret agents inside think the men dressed all in black without any marks to identify them carrying assault weapons are terrorists and start shooting at you.
** Telling the FBI everything they wanted to know in exchange for immunity or some other deal to minimize how much jail time you do? Sure. However make sure you only do so '''after''' you get it offered to you in writing, otherwise you just told them everything they wanted to hear for free.

** NeverTrustATrailer: That said, several scenes never appear in the season, namely Archer sitting at a desk with a tiger sitting on top, Lana's water breaking in Morocco in the same conditions as Archer (even dressed as Mallory was at the time), Archer driving a speedboat outside Miami, Archer and Lana in a room with several Hell's Angels holding clubs and chains, Archer, Mallory, Lana, Cyril and Pam in a life raft with a tiger, Archer being held at gunpoint inside a dam by FBI Special Agent Holly a lá ''Film/TheFugitive'', Cherlene being kidnapped, Cherlene's tour bus exploding as Ray reports her kidnapping from a payphone, a helicopter being shot down, Archer accidentally invading Laos with insurgents, his manicurist and a tiger, Archer skydiving, Archer and Lana fleeing police on a motorcycle then ramping off a flatbed and Pam driving a limo while Cheryl fires an RPG at a police car.

* PoorCommunicationKills: As agent Holly points out the entire shootout could have been avoided if his men had announced they were FBI before entering ISIS.